


Self-Care Comes In Many Forms

by TheRaven



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, Piercings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2014-05-09
Packaged: 2018-01-24 04:05:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1591007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRaven/pseuds/TheRaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky does something for himself for once.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Self-Care Comes In Many Forms

The first time, he does it on a whim. He's passing a curio shop, and the sign in the front window says “EAR PIERCINGS $20,” and he just so happens to have thirty dollars on him. The woman behind the counter gives him a strange look when he walks in, because he's obviously homeless and there are much better things he could be spending his money on, but she sits him in the chair behind the counter and gets out the piercing gun and has him pick out what studs he wants in his ears. 

He chooses plain silver ones that are probably actually nickel or steel and doesn't even flinch when the woman pierces his ears with them. He pays her, and she gives him a discount because, in her words, “I feel terrible for taking your money.” He walks out with fifteen dollars in his pocket and instructions to get some rubbing alcohol and cotton balls to clean the new piercings with for the next six weeks while they heal.

He decides he really likes the piercings. They're something he's done on his own, something that claims ownership of his body. He can do anything to his body that he likes now, and the little silver studs are a visible reminder of that. He diligently cleans them with the rubbing alcohol, which he keeps in the top of his bag so the cap doesn't come off and waste it all, and as they start to heal up, he wonders if he should stop there. The little silver studs make him feel a little better, so wouldn't another set make him feel even more better? He ponders this for weeks.

Then, four weeks after the first set, he walks into a tattoo shop offering ear piercings for thirty dollars, and he asks for a second set in his earlobes. The man at the counter doesn't take a second glance at him, just takes his money and leads him to a chair in the back and digs the piercing gun out of a drawer. Bucky picks another set of plain silver studs, because anything flashy just seems out of character, and the man loads each one into the gun and pierces his ears with them.

The third set happens two and a half weeks later at the same tattoo shop, because Bucky feels oddly safe going there. It costs more this time because the third set is right next to the cartilage, but Bucky has the money. Panhandling has become a pastime of his, and he has resolved to spend whatever he gets from it on more body modifications. He can always find food in the dumpsters behind grocery stores and bakeries, after all. They take his money without question and talk to him like he's a normal person, which only reinforces Bucky's assessment that the tattoo shop is a safe place to be.

He contemplates getting a tattoo, but the piercings are an oddly more attractive prospect. Bucky goes back every few weeks for a new one, starting with six more in each ear. They tell him to wait longer between piercings, but he takes good care of them and hasn't had an infection yet, so they consent to doing more for him. Bucky thanks them quietly each time he pays them, because they don't have to take his money. They could always turn him away, but they don't. They treat him like they would any other client.

In a year, Bucky gets every piercing he can think of. He doesn't care that some people would call him a human pincushion. This is his body, and he's taking ownership of it, so they can go fuck themselves. Paired with his combat boots and tattered clothes, they make the people in the tattoo parlor call him a gutter punk, which, given his limited understanding of modern counterculture, he decides is an accurate assessment. He likes the aesthetic, really, even though he has little choice in how he presents himself outside of the piercings.

He turns himself in when his tongue piercing has fully healed. It hadn't taken him long to learn to talk with it in, but he didn't want to lose it if they made him take out all his piercings. As it turns out, the only time they do is when they do X-rays and other scans on him to make sure Hydra hadn't left anything interesting in his body. They do ask him if he's sure he wants to keep them all, and after some consideration, Bucky decides that yes, he's keeping all of them. Every single one. They're a concrete reminder that he owns himself and can do with himself what he pleases, and more importantly, they're the first things he ever did for himself just because he wanted to.


End file.
